Walker Art Gallery unveils new contemporary works
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
Works by artists including Michael Landy, Shaqúelle Whyte and Ebun Sodipo have gone on show in the Walker Art Gallery’s reopened contemporary galleries.
The gallery spaces have undergone a refurbishment and rehang with the addition of 11 new acquisitions from the National Museums Liverpool collection.
Among them is Landy’s huge 2013 kinetic sculpture Multi-Saint (above) which is inspired by Christian iconography and brings together five martyred saints - Catherine, Lucy, Peter Martyr, Lawrence and Michael.
Other pieces being shown in the gallery for the first time include Whyte’s In an embroiled fashion (2025) which depicts two men wrestling while a third looks on; Eva Helene Pade’s I mørket (In the dark) (2025); John Moores Painting Prize jury member Louise Giovanelli’s Mise en scène (2025); Ebun Sodipo’s diptych What if Laure Was / A Black Goddess Come to Earth (2025), which reimagines Laure, the Black woman who posed for the servant in Manet’s Olympia (1863) but whose own life went largely unrecorded, and photographs by Jenny Lewis from her UnBecoming series.
Meanwhile several John Moores Painting Prize artworks are returning to public display including the late David Hockney’s celebrated work Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool.
Charlotte Keenan, the head of the Walker Art Gallery, said: “We’re really pleased to be showing this selection of works to the public for the first time.
“They are all new to the collection, and together they give a sense of what the Walker is collecting today, set against the historic works people know us for.
“With the gallery’s 150th anniversary coming in 2027, it’s the perfect time to show how the collection keeps growing.”
Top: Michael Landy with his kinetic sculpture Multi-Saint. Photo by Pete Carr.